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Defense Specialization & Evasion Specialization 3

Maple and Sally hunted for each other’s life, trading rushes and feints in a tight rhythm.

“【Water Path】!”

“【Poison Dragon】【Attack Start】!”

“【Icicle Pillar】!”

“【Paralyze Shout】!”

“…!”

“【Ancient Weapon】!”

It had just gotten noticeably harder.

Watching Maple’s growth spike in real time, Sally’s eyes lit up; a daring smile touched her lips. This wasn’t luck. Something had cracked open inside Maple—she was shedding her shell and closing distance with intent.

Hide a bullet behind a bullet.

Pre-place a laser in the escape lane.

Thread in a well-timed 【Paralyze Shout】 so Sally must burn an item—or bet on a parry with her daggers.

“I see… I see…!”

Matching Maple’s words to her movement, Sally reached an answer to the trick behind this sudden leap: wherever Sally dodged, the next shot was already waiting; when she went to parry, a second strike always arrived a half-beat late.

It was as if Maple could see the future—reading Sally’s next choice with uncanny precision.

All their days until now, everything they’d shared since the very first time they met, let Maple predict only Sally at an abnormal level. Maple couldn’t explain it in theory. She just… knew. And she could stake everything on that feeling.

What let Maple surrender herself to that instinct was the same source as her absolute trust in Sally: the years together, the moments lived, the catalog of small lessons Sally had given her about Sally—each one hinting at what would come next. Maple believed in those days with her whole heart. That lack of hesitation—no flicker of doubt—let her catch up to Sally’s speed.

“【Icicle Pillar】!”

Layering in three-dimensional routes while probing Maple’s openings, Sally also solved an old puzzle that had nagged at her. Compared with Sally, Maple’s movement and reaction were less precise and slower; that’s why Maple came armed with lots of set plays and practiced links.

Even so, battlefields change in a blink. Unexpected scenes force improvisation. And sometimes, Maple answered them with startling reactions—no orders given—keeping pace with Sally’s speed, cutting the right skills, and countering cleanly. Looking back, it always happened when Maple was matching Sally.

“Got it!”

Not reacting to the enemy, but to her ally—an improvised, high-speed duet keyed to Sally alone. A near-future sense that exceeded Maple’s native specs, but only for one person. She couldn’t do this on Pain, Mii, Velvet, or Lily. Only with Sally—the one she’d built those layers with.

Maple had begun to recognize what they’d built and bring it under her control—and right now, that recognition was blunting Sally’s attack.

“I can go even higher…!”

What a happy day, Sally thought. Maple had caught up. Maple had answered her selfish wish. This wouldn’t end in something empty. Sally would crank up her performance, aim to surpass even Maple’s “future-sense,” and drive in another 【Armor Piercer】. She stepped in hard and sprinted.

“I can see it… such a weird feeling…”

For the first time, Maple could read Sally’s next motion with needle accuracy. Every feint, the true line she wanted—Maple didn’t know the “why,” but she knew which option Sally would pick. It was a warped surge of growth.

“I want to be like Sally too…”

All that accumulated experience finally clicked. Her pure wish—“I want Sally to have fun”—overturned one quiet decision in Maple’s heart:

Resignation.

A gentle, forward-facing surrender so natural she’d never noticed it. For a long time, “a gamer” meant Sally alone. Sally’s exquisitely polished play had defined how Maple saw games: like a TV on the far wall, watching genius shine, marveling at highlight plays. Before Maple ever tried to stand beside that brilliance… she became a spectator.

And that was more than enough joy.

She didn’t need to cross over—just watching was fine. That was Maple’s way to enjoy games. Seeing Sally have fun was happiness. Without ever realizing that, somewhere along the way, she had become necessary to that fun.

She wanted Sally to enjoy this.

So Maple stepped onto the stage. She changed—into someone who could stand in front of Sally. All those days Sally spent teaching her “how to win” were top-tier coaching. However it formed, that experience had been waiting for this moment—the moment Maple would drop the spectator’s seat and play.

“Sally looks so happy. Okay…!”

There was more. She could feel it. Ideas she’d never considered popped like someone had lifted the lid on her brain. And where instinct still fell short, Maple had brute power—skills that could prop up her budding technique and let her fight Sally as an equal.

“Everything’s fine… as long as it’s not 【Armor Piercer】!”

Being defense-specialized mattered. Most of Sally’s toolkit meant nothing; Maple could narrow her fear to a single threat. As long as Sally didn’t get right beside her, Maple could live. Even with a newborn intuition, backed like this, Maple would have moments she could surpass Sally.

Sally came charging; Maple couldn’t just “take hits.” Maple knew exactly when Sally smiled the brightest—and she wanted to see it.

“Haaah…”

She had to attack. She had to be a real wall. She wanted Sally to enjoy this even more. This match was one of Sally’s “selfish wishes.”

That joyful look had captivated Maple. She loved the shine that Sally’s focus threw off.

And a strong flame of will burned in Maple’s eyes.

Sally closed in, batting aside Maple’s shots with even sharper focus. Illusions via 【Mirage】 wouldn’t fool Maple now, so Sally needed to use the knockback from 【Flash Flood】 or 【Torrent】 to break Maple’s stance and ram in 【Armor Piercer】. Maple couldn’t catch Sally cleanly yet, and Sally kept tightening the gap.

Then Maple dismissed her deployed weapons and slipped behind her raised greatshield. A counter. It was the same plan that mortally wounded Pain in the fourth event. Sally assumed Maple would ready a weapon behind the shield—so she watched for it. The next instant, a thunderclap—Maple’s greatshield blasted straight at her like a cannon round, and Sally’s eyes widened.

It was a self-destruct flight trick, turning the shield itself into a projectile. Even so, Sally judged it all avoidable, including the shrapnel—then twisted her body by a few centimeters and let the oncoming shield scream past. Business as usual for Sally.

And exactly what Maple expected.

“Oboro, 【Vanish】!”

A pinprick of red in the corner of Sally’s eye—her instincts wailed. She snapped the call—and a chain of massive explosions rolled across the field. Without 【Vanish】, she would have died on the spot.

“Smoke…!”

Bombs had been glued to the back of the shield; the red blink she’d noticed was a row of timers. The smoke poured out, swallowing vision. As 【Vanish】 faded, Sally’s ears picked out another blast hiding inside the roars.

“…!”

Maple tore through the smoke, one arm blooming a long blade from 【Machine God】. Risky, low-yield as a plan—this wasn’t Sally’s design. It was a plan that said, “Even 1 damage is fine.”

In other words, Maple had made it now, to defeat Sally.

“Yaaaaah!”

Sally’s eyes were drawn to Maple’s—truly serious now, aimed at an enemy. A will to cut Sally down. A hunger to win.

The moment Sally had been waiting for.

All the happy memories up to today—and the sights she’d thought she’d given up on—pressed down like years of weight… and for a heartbeat, stopped Shiramine Risa’s feet.

“—oof—wa—ah!?”

Maple hadn’t even thought about landing. She skimmed past Sally and tumbled across the ground. Sally traced the line on her cheek where the blade had kissed her—almost tenderly—shed the 【Decoy】 afterimage, and turned.

“Maple!”

“…Did I hit?”

“Yeah. You’ve really gotten good.”

“Really!?”

“Really. I’m happy for you. But… hehe, I won’t let you land that so easily a second time.”

Sally reset her twin daggers—so obviously, unmistakably delighted that Maple beamed and sprang to her feet.

“Okay then… I won’t lose, Sally!”

“‘Won’t lose,’ huh… That’s more like it!”

Even the time they wished would last forever had an end: the event would close. Not much time remained—and with it, the two of them headed for a true conclusion,

—for the first time, both of them aiming for victory.